Parliament library is the loneliest place on earth, says Varun Gandhi

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi said each time he went to the library in Parliament, the librarian hugged him in glee

World's loneliest place
 

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi (pictured) said each time he went to the library in Parliament, the librarian hugged him in glee. The reason? He wouldn't have seen another parliamentarian in days. "It is the loneliest place on earth as members seldom visit it," he said while speaking at the Indian School of Business policy conclave, Road to 2019, in Hyderabad. He added while the country was brimming with young people, the average age of parliamentarians was increasing. So was the average salary of MPs, which had been increasing every term since 1952.

Safer India 
 

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday met 40 survivors of rape and sexual violence at her residence in New Delhi. The victims were part of the dignity march, comprising hundreds of sexual violence survivors, who had traversed the length and breadth of the country over the past two months to reach New Delhi to make their voices heard. During the delegation's meeting with Priyanka, the Congress leader not only asked all the men to leave the room but also barred anyone from her team from clicking photographs. In a tweet after their meeting, the survivors said they had shared their stories with Priyanka. “Priyanka-ji expressed her... vision for a safer India for women and children. We need support from all corners of society to achieve the vision,” the ‘dignity march’ tweeted from its Twitter handle.

Kejriwal’s fast
 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has threatened an indefinite hunger strike from March 1, demanding full statehood for Delhi. He said he was willing to sacrifice his life for the cause, putting both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in a bind. BJP sources said the threat was not merely rhetorical since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief suffered from severe diabetes. With the Lok Sabha election round the corner and the Congress unwilling to have any truck with AAP for New Delhi's seven Lok Sabha seats, Congress sources said the fast was Kejriwal's way of forcing them to agree to a pre-poll alliance in Delhi, rather than putting pressure on the Narendra Modi government or the BJP. In 2014, the BJP had won all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi.